Jason Cordova – Page 159 – The Gauntlet G+ Archives

Just a reminder that Daniel Lewis will be running cyberpunk game Remember Tomorrow on Sunday.

Just a reminder that Daniel Lewis will be running cyberpunk game Remember Tomorrow on Sunday. This one looks pretty rad. I’m pretty sure there isn’t a single elf or orc in sight.

http://gregorhutton.com/boxninja/remember/

We had two games going for Story Game Sunday today.

We had two games going for Story Game Sunday today. Rob ran Swords Without Master and Jessica ran our wrap-up session of Annalise.

I will let the guys who played Swords chime-in on with their thoughts. For now, though, I want to say a little bit about our story in Annalise.

Our game of Annalise was told over the course of three sessions and it was AMAZING! Easily one of my favorite stories so far this year. Our game took place in 16th century Venice and the three of us played naughty nobles getting into all manner of drunken debauchery. I played Judge Ordo Capellini, a depraved, predatory nobleman trying to settle a score with a social rival, Lady Carlotta. Jessica played Carmela Troya, a young girl who has just come out into society and who deeply resents her mother’s efforts to arrange a marriage for her. And Ferrell played Giuseppe, a narcissistic young nobleman who idealizes the performer’s life, but who is constrained by the pressures of his position.

I’m not going to do a tick-tock on the story, but I will just say it was filled with both lavish masquerade balls and wickedly intimate candlelight dinners; exquisitely appointed pleasure dens and dirty, whore-filled alleys; elaborate hedge mazes and pastoral country scenes. It was sex and murder and violence and hedonism. And I loved it.

There were several recurring themes and NPCs. Greek myth played a large part in the proceedings, with some of the party scenes being staged as reenactments of those classic tales (such as a deliciously twisted, gender-bent version of the story of Paris and Helen). There was also a traveling circus in the background of many scenes, as they were staying with Judge Ordo as his guests. This provided lots of fun scenes and NPCs, such as whenever anyone consulted with the tarot card reader, Madame Stormé.

Our ‘vampire’ turned out to be a hunchback circus dwarf who was actually a shape-shifting demon. It fed off the debauchery and depravity our characters got up to. In the end, Carmela and Giuseppe gave into him, but Judge Ordo – to that point the most twisted and debauched of the bunch – managed to resist him and chose to live out his days in country quietude.

It was a ton of fun. I became really attached to all these characters and I’m kind of sad we’re done with them.

Thanks to everyone who came out: Rob Ferguson Jessica Scott Ferrell Riley Aaron Scott Stephen Crawford Steve Mains and new guy, Isaac.

Because I was feeling a little burned-out on fantasy last night, we decided to play InSpectres instead of the…

Because I was feeling a little burned-out on fantasy last night, we decided to play InSpectres instead of the Anthology game. I won’t go into too many details about what happened in our game because, frankly, it was a little politically incorrect. Needless to say, though, everyone had a blast.

Thanks to Rob Ferguson Scott Owen Steven McGinley Jacob Densford Nicolette Khan and Ferrell Riley for coming out!

The new Bundle of Holding is pretty cool.

The new Bundle of Holding is pretty cool. Paranoia is one of those games where I absolutely love the setting, but not so much the rules. I wonder if anyone has made a PbtA version of it?

http://bundleofholding.com/index/current

Some pics from Wednesday One-Shots. We played Dungeon World and The Final Girl.

Thanks to Rob Ferguson Gary Wilson James Melott Angel Ludwig Stephen Crawford Daniel Fowler Kerry Harrison Ferrell Riley Scott Owen Kyle Mayfield and James for coming out!

Some pics from tonight’s Board Game Monday. Thanks to everyone who came out!

So, today we played Session 2 of Annalise.

So, today we played Session 2 of Annalise. We had two tables. The table I was at decided to give our story one more session next week. The other table wrapped theirs up today. Since my table’s story is in progress, I won’t comment on that just yet. I’m going to take this time to talk a bit about the rules.

Mechanically speaking, Annalise is terrific. The idea behind the game is there is a ‘vampire’ who is trying to turn the player characters into its thralls. Now, the vampire doesn’t have to be a literal nosferatu, nor does it even have to be an individual. It can be a concept, like ‘drug addiction,’ or a group of people, like a cult. At the start of the game, you don’t know the identity of the vampire. During play there may be hints in the story as to what the vampire is, but ultimately the game’s mechanics allow for the vampire to reveal itself organically through play.

Player characters have a Vulnerability and a Secret. Their Vulnerability is the thing that makes them particularly susceptible to being lured-in by the vampire, and they can write traits that are related to it. Their Secret is a piece of dark information that the player can hint about throughout the game by making traits that allude to it. Players may also claim interesting ideas in the story as a sort-of currency which can be used to push the story in different directions. So, for example, if my narration involves my character’s love of opera, another player can claim ‘The Opera’ and then narrate it in later to affect things.

Gameplay involves setting scenes and playing them out until the spotlight player states something they want to achieve as an objective. Their scene guide (another player at the table) then details a consequence. The resolution mechanic involves tapping the traits gained from your Secret and your Vulnerability and then rolling to see if either the objective or the consequence comes to pass. Other players can narrate-in their claimed story elements to manipulate the outcome as well.

I can’t speak much to the endgame, because our table isn’t there yet, but I gather at some point the vampire reveals itself and then everyone has to make a choice about whether they succumb to it or resist it.

I really love this game. It is just so damn cool. I’m very happy that our table decided to take a third session to finish the story, because I didn’t want to rush it. We’re letting our depraved, nightmarish little tale unfurl at a really elegant pace, and I’m quite happy with it.

If anyone else wants to chime-in with their thoughts, please do.

Thanks to Jessica Scott and Aaron Scott for facilitating the games. They’re a fairly new addition to the Gauntlet, and we’re super-glad they joined us.

Thanks also to Rob Ferguson Ferrell Riley Steve Mains and Angel Ludwig for coming out!

We had a great time with Dungeon World last night. We had enough folks for two tables.

Thanks to Rob Ferguson for running the other game and to Russell Benner Scott Owen Jacob Densford Nikki Khan Andrew Schmelzle and the mysterious Steven M. for coming out!

Because I love you all so deeply (and tenderly), I do my best to find you good things from the Internet.

Because I love you all so deeply (and tenderly), I do my best to find you good things from the Internet. The Bundle of Holding this week is a very interesting one. Pendragon has been on my radar for awhile, especially since a number of my game designer ‘heroes’ are currently playing it. The bonus bundle includes the legendary Great Pendragon Campaign, which is kind of neat.

http://bundleofholding.com/index/current

For our board game night on Monday, we played Arctic Scavengers.

For our board game night on Monday, we played Arctic Scavengers. It’s a deck builder (like those initially popularized by Dominion), but with more player interaction than those games normally have. Like all good Euro games, it is dead simple to play, but wonderfully deep. My mind was racing with the various possibilities available in the gameplay both during and after the game.

Thanks to Daniel Fowler and Ferrell Riley for coming out, and to Rob Ferguson for teaching us the game.